Monsieur Beaucaire

Made at the peak of Bob Hope's popularity, this remake of a Rudolph Valentino silent (based on a novel by Booth Tarkington) is played strictly for laughs as Bob, a barber at the court of Louis XV, is forced to masquerade as a great lover and swordsman. Joan Caulfield makes a colourless leading lady (she was Bing Crosby's girlfriend at the time, so the studio were favouring her), but those scene-stealing stalwarts Joseph Schildkraut and Constance Collier add to the fun. Comedy specialist George Marshall directed, but the climactic swordfight was filmed by Frank Tashlin after the movie's first preview.